


That's Just Dumb

by CaptainErica



Category: X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Erik finds this whole thing hilarious, Memory Modification, Professor X is very powerful
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-11
Updated: 2016-06-11
Packaged: 2018-07-14 11:34:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7169375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainErica/pseuds/CaptainErica
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Charles knows that in order to successfully get through a meeting with the CIA without lying, he needs to do something a little drastic. Hank is worried that the Professor is just a little too good at what he does. Erik thinks this is the funniest thing he's ever accidentally stumbled into. Raven is very frustrated.</p>
            </blockquote>





	That's Just Dumb

_“It’s the easiest way.”_  
Charles’s words were ringing through Hank’s ears as he rushed down the sloping path that led from the tennis courts to the front of the school. He’d expected to have more time before the Professor had returned, so he hadn’t been waiting at the front when the car had driven up. He had been able to hear it from the pond out back, and instantly felt guilty. He had promised to remind Charles to….

“Erik?!” Hank says, confusion warring across his features. He was certain that he’d only heard the one car pull up in the driveway; but there was the Professor’s car parked at the front, and behind it was the car that Erik was just stepping out of.

“Beast.” Erik says with a nod, but Hank is now panicking because he’d promised that Charles wouldn’t have to speak to anyone else without all of his proper memories in place. “You just missed Mystique, she jumped out immediately to greet Charles.” He says, and Hank’s gaze snaps back to Erik and his panic explodes behind his eyes and he knows Erik can see it. “It was strange, though...he didn’t seem to recognize her…”

It was an invitation to explain, and Hank didn’t really want to because he really didn’t have the time. If Raven had run into the Professor, then he was already too late. But if he was already too late… “Charles had to speak with the CIA.” He starts as Erik comes around the side of the car to stand beside him. “He didn’t want to lie to them, so he decided to try an...experiment.”

Erik frowns, his brows furrowing as he takes the information in. He gestures for Hank to keep going, and they start to walk up the steps and into the school. “They were going to ask questions about…?” He leaves the question hanging, and Hank nods.

“They want to understand Raven...and you, for that matter. But questions about Raven are more dangerous, and more painful for the Professor to answer.” He winces as he finishes, but then shrugs when Erik doesn’t seem inclined to respond. “So he erased them. He erased all memories of her from his mind, and asked me to remind him to give them back when he returned.” But of course, he’d been stupid enough to think that he would have time and that a couple of minutes wouldn’t really matter.

“And then Raven and I turn up, unannounced, and you were too late.” Erik says, and Hank nods. They turn down the hallway leading to Charles’s office; Hank hoping, in vain, that Raven had decided not to speak with Charles.  
***

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I know you.” Charles says pleasantly. He’s smiling like he does at everyone he sees; genuine, but with a touch of amused detachment. It’s a smile that Raven has always admired because you could feel the warmth but it wasn’t too friendly.

She hates it today.

  
The last time Charles had smiled at her like this was when he’d found her in his kitchen when she was 8 and had been trying to steal his food. She scowls at him, wondering for the 6th time since she had gotten out of the car and run up to greet him if he was joking with her or being genuine. With an internal sigh, however, she admits that right at this moment, he was being 100% genuine, and that was almost worse than anything she had ever dealt with.

They had paused at the entrance to the school to speak, and now she feels rather dumb. She hasn’t felt this way in front of Charles in years; as though she were something vaguely insignificant that he was patient enough to deal with anyway.

“I’m sorry, we met once,” she says, “through Erik.” She adds, hoping _that_ maybe that would jog his memory.

He looks at her a little puzzledly for a moment, before allowing another, slightly different from the first, smile tug at his lips. “I’m quite sure I would remember meeting someone as beautiful as you.” He makes a gesture with his hand, politely indicating for her to step through the doors ahead of him. She’s too frustrated to take the compliment with anything more than a vague smile and a murmured _thank you_.

Yes, Charles _should_ remember meeting her. The fact that he doesn’t remember her is so frustrating and painful to her that she can barely comprehend it. _What happened to you, Charles?_

“Just in here.” He says, and she nods, pushing open the door to his office without much thought and holding it open as he comes in behind her. He maneuvers around behind his desk and then leans forward with his elbows up on the desk and his hands pressed together. “So, what brings you to my school?”

There were many ways for her to play this situation out...but she wasn’t entirely sure how much she wanted to lie to him, even if he didn’t seem to be 100% himself. “I came with Erik...to see you.” She starts, and another smile crosses his lips. It’s indulgent and attractive and she remembers, suddenly, sitting at a table in a pub in England and watching that smile settle itself onto his face while he hit on girls at the bar. It makes her frown slightly.

“Ahh,” He says after a couple of beats. “Were you looking for my help?” He asks, and she can see that he is considering looking into her mind, but his hands stay where they are, and she is both confused and relieved at the same time.

The question, however, gives her something to work with. “Erik was, I think. He’s just much slower than me when it comes to getting out of tight spaces.” It was a deliberately incorrect way of describing the car, but she was interested in his reaction. She makes a little face to show her distaste with his slowness, and then shrugs. Charles laughs.

“He’s not usually so slow. He must have run into Hank, or else he’d be here with us now.” He looks thoughtful for a moment. “Though, I must say, I’m not overly upset that he isn’t here right now.” The indulgent smile is back, and she feels herself smiling back.

“I would have to agree.” She says, moving forward to perch on the edge of his desk.

“Raven, you said?” He asks, and she nods. “That’s a very interesting name.” He murmurs, and he seems almost troubled for a second before his face clears and he looks back up at her. “But tell me, what is an exquisite creature such as yourself doing hanging around with Erik?” He asks, and she’s amused despite herself and a small laugh escapes her lips.

“He’s not _that_ bad.” She says, looking away and around the room. _He’s no you, though_ , her mind supplies, but she shakes the thought away. Her admission had caused Charles to laugh, and she turns a smile back on him. “But I’m only with him for a short while. I’m trying to decide what to do next. It’s part of the reason I came with him today.” She says. It’s not a lie, per se, but it isn’t entirely the whole truth, and she hopes that whatever is keeping him from reading her mind holds.

He looks more interested now. “I am always looking to add new and experienced staff…” He starts, and she smiles, just a little sadly.

“I’m not sure I’m someone you want, in that regard.” She says, and he shakes his head.

“No, I will not take any negativity today! Not from anybody,” He says, “but most especially not from such an exceptionally beautiful woman as yourself.” He looked so earnest as he spoke, and she could tell his was flirting.

She feels herself blush despite herself; he’d told her on more than one occasion that she was beautiful...but never quite with that much feeling. She decides, then, to fix the situation by getting rid of the possibility for further blushing. While he’s staring she tilts her head to the side, stands, raises an eyebrow, and then transforms back into her natural blue form. “Still?” She asks, and she knows she sounds a little peevish, but she wants him to recognize her. She wants that spark of recognition to light up his eyes. She also, deep down and in a place she had tried to bury, really wants him to appreciate her for who she actually is, and not just the human form she takes. She’d always wanted him to.

The surprise on his face is real, but it’s replaced with the exact same expression he’d held as a child, though it was much more satisfying to see it now, as an adult.

“You’re magnificent.” He breathes, his eyes wide in wonder and his lips parted in surprise. She’s pretty thrilled that he can’t see her blushing anymore. “Please, please sit down over here, where have my manners gone?” He says, admonishing himself but still unable to take his eyes off of her.

He rolls himself over to the group of couches and low tables in the corner, and she takes a seat across from him. “I don’t hear that often.” She says demurely, and she’s almost ashamed with how much like a flirtation that had sounded.

“I refuse to believe that anyone who looked at you could see you as anything less than a masterpiece.” He says, and he’s got that look that she’s seen him get...the one where he’s flustered but he doesn’t know the person well enough to be embarrassed: when he got embarrassed he stuttered. No, Raven thinks as she tilts her head to the side and waits for the questions she knows he’ll ask, he isn’t stuttering and embarrassing because he’s more confident with people he doesn’t know. “How long?” He asks, and she smiles just a little; not perfectly in control, then.

“Since I was born.” She says, and he leans forward in his wheelchair to better study her. She wants to be annoyed, but instead she notes that his fascination is clearly more than just academic: she’s seen this look on his face before, too.

“Well, I must say, if I really did meet you then I am mortified that I do not remember the meeting.” He shakes his head and leans back. “How I could forget such utter beauty is beyond me.” He wants to reach out and brush her mind for a moment, just to get something to ground himself with so that he stops staring at her like some sort of lovesick child...but there is something about her that makes him feel like he absolutely should not do that. It felt like a promise, something deep down that he cannot break just to assuage his curiosity.

He watches her duck her head down briefly, as if she were embarrassed by his words, but he doesn’t believe for one second that she isn’t inundated with compliments.

“Tell me more about yourself, Raven. I am insanely curious.”  
***

“What are you so worried about, though?” Erik asks, grabbing Hank’s arm to stop him from going any further.

“Charles very specifically asked that I remind him upon his return to return the memories he had taken from himself.” Hank says, a little fiercely. “He was very insistent that it happen as soon as possible.”

“I wonder what he was worried about.” Erik muses aloud, his hand still holding Hank in place. Hank threw a couple of worried glances at the door to Charles’s office before giving up.

Erik was actually kind of curious what it was that Charles could have been so afraid of. There was almost no chance that Charles could have known that he and Raven were going to stop by that day, so it didn’t seem likely that Charles was overly worried about offending Raven by having forgotten her. But then….

Erik turns a curious look toward the door at the end of the hall. Charles had always been so insistent that everyone consider Raven his sister. Erik had, indeed, found the insistence rather amusing for a while before it became tiring and almost irritating. Raven was most certainly not related to Charles, and even she hated hearing her oldest friend calling her his sister. Part of that, he knew, was that she had fallen in love with Charles at some point in her long life with the man, and Charles seemed entirely oblivious to that fact.

‘Seemed’ being the operative word, there, he thought. He was quite certain that his friend was at least a little aware of how much Raven adored him. The real question was just how aware Charles was of how much he, himself, adored her. Because that hadn’t escaped Erik’s notice, and this insistence that he have his memories of her returned really helps to support the small theory bubbling away in the back of his brain.

“We should…” Hank says, clearly agitated.

“Should we?” Erik asks, and Hank makes an impatient sound. He’s definitely stronger than Erik, but not as strong as he is when he’s _actually_ Beast.

“The Professor has never taken away any of his own memories until today.” He says, and Erik can see the panic bubbling around the edges of Hank’s control. “If he didn’t recognize Raven, despite having spent 4 hours with the CIA this morning going over his connection to you and her, then who knows what is happening in his brain? How do we know this isn’t permanent? How do we know that he will be able to fix this?”

Erik considers him for a moment. Hank wasn’t wrong; if Charles didn’t put together that Raven and Mystique were the same person, then either he was exceptionally thorough or his brain was working overtime to continue erasing all memories of her, and who knew how his meeting with Raven at the moment was going. “There’s no shouting coming from his office, so that could be a good thing.” Erik says mildly, and he can almost feel Hank roll his eyes.

“Yes well, there wouldn’t be _any_ sound if Raven had to subdue him.” Hank says darkly.

Erik turns an alarmed look on the younger man. “Why on earth would she have to subdue _him_?”

Hank makes a gesture with his hand. “I don’t _know_.” He says, his teeth clenched in frustration. “But we could save ourselves the trouble of _guessing_ what’s happening, by actually going and checking.” He continues, and Erik adopts a thoughtful expression.

“Hm, yes, let’s go save our friends.” Erik says, and lets go of Hank’s arm. His stride is longer than Hank’s, so he beats the younger man to the office door. He puts his finger to his lips and Hank nods, though he looks confused by his agreement. Leaning his ear against the door, Erik tries to make out any part of the conversation on the other side.

“...truly amazing.” Erik could hear Charles saying. “You should stay. You will stay, will you not?” Raven responds, but she’s too far from the door for Erik to make out her words. “I promise you would not be bored…” Charles’s voice had dropped just slightly too low for Erik to hear, but he’d already heard enough: _Charles was hitting on Raven_.

He’s so amused by this revelation that he allows Hank, who was far too uncomfortable with the current situation to allow it to continue, to push past Erik and knock brusquely on the door. “Professor?”

There’s silence for a couple of seconds, and then “Do come in, Hank.”

With a look of triumph, he pulls open the door and Erik rolls his eyes before following him in. Raven and Charles were at the low tables in the corner, closer to each other than either man would have expected.

“I was just speaking with your rather remarkable friend, Erik!” Charles says, a rakish grin crossing his face that makes Hank choke on his air and Erik bite back an amused laugh. Raven sends them both a look of death over Charles’s shoulder. “How you could have hidden her from me all these years, I do not know.”

“Careless of me not to introduce the two of you any sooner, old friend.” Erik responds, amusement lacing his words. Hank lets out a soft snort of derision, before anxiously moving forward a few steps.

“Professor, you wanted me to remind you, and I’m sorry that I’m later than promised….” He starts, and Charles looks at him with a hint of confusion. “Right, um, you wanted me to remind you to give yourself back the memories you had taken from yourself...The ones about...Mystique.” Hank says, a little bit of hesitation tacked onto the end of his sentence. Charles had clearly not remembered his directive during his conversation with Raven, who most likely hadn’t told him her ‘code name’.

With a frown, Charles nods and then turns to Raven. “Just a moment, I had a conversation with the CIA this morning.” He says, backing away from the table a bit so that he could focus. With his fingers at his temple, Charles frowns for a second as he tries to return his missing memories to their rightful places.

From behind his back, Raven gives Hank a very severe look, and he mouths back, as best he can, that he was sorry he hadn’t been able to warn her. Part way through their mouthed argument there was a slightly pained gasp from Charles. All of them stop and turn toward him. He’s staring straight ahead, but as he realizes they are all looking at him, his eyes trail over to the right where his gaze lands on Raven. She turns back into her human form as she leans forward, hoping, probably, to tell him that she isn’t offended that he had erased her from his memory; if only because he looked so unhappy. But she’s stopped by the flash of red that rushes to cover his cheeks.

“Ah, yes.” He says, the words sounding jumbled and as though he’d actually meant to say something else.

“Charles,” Raven starts, but he blinks rapidly, turning his face away from her only for his gaze to land on an amused-looking Erik.

“How are you, old friend? Good time with the CIA?” He was clearly amused, and Hank suddenly feels like he’s missing something.

“The usual.” Charles says, brusquely, his voice cracking just slightly. He spares Hank a pained look, before making for the door. “I really must be...going.” He says, his eyes staring straight ahead.

“But we’ve only just arrived! You were just telling us all how _wonderful_ Raven is.” Erik says, a laugh dangling somewhere behind the words. It makes Hank wince, and Raven shoots Erik a look of revulsion. “She _is_ wonderful, Charles. You should tell her so more often.” He says much more quietly as Charles comes up beside him.

“I’ve apparently said it quite a lot quite recently.” Charles murmurs before passing out the open door.

“Charles, wait!” Raven calls, standing up quickly and racing after him. She spares another glare at Erik, with a slightly softer one for Hank, before she passes out the door.

“That was rude.” Hank says, his eyes on the door.

Erik scoffs. “It was amusing.” He says.  
***

Charles prided himself on his own personal control. It had taken him years and all of the patience that he already had to keep his thoughts in check. He had a lot of thoughts to deal with, so it made sense for him to try and keep his own thoughts tightly corralled. Raven, he knew, was someone who threw off all of his perfect control. He spent so much time _correcting_ his thoughts about her, that it had become second nature to tell people that she was his sister, even if they knew otherwise.

She was his sister, his mind hisses at him, and he rolls his eyes at himself. He could really only kid himself for so long, he’d always known…

“Charles, wait!” Raven calls, and he’s dragged forcefully from his thoughts by the sound of her voice. He’d left the office rather abruptly, he would admit. “Charles stop running away from me.” She says, her voice carrying a hint of hurt at the tail end.

He clears his throat. “I’m not running.” He says, his voice a little more ragged than he would have preferred.

“Maybe not physically, but that’s not really the point.” She says, and he rolls his eyes. He can feel that she’s caught up to him, and he’s proven right when she grabs the handles on the back of his chair. The contact makes the chair switch out of his control, a strange quirk that Hank had added in just to piss Charles off.

“I’m going to my room.” He says, hoping that it will get her to let go and let him leave with just a little bit of dignity.

“Alright.” She says, pushing him steadily down the hall.

“I was hoping to get some rest.” He says after a short beat.

“I’m rather tired myself.” She says, and he glowers ahead of him even as he feels his heart flutter.

“I’m sorry I deleted you.” He says quietly as they reach the end of the hall and turn down another hall. He could see the door to his room, and he felt a sting of apprehension in his gut, causing him to blabber. “I didn’t want to lie to the CIA, and I knew they were going to ask about you.” He says a little louder than previously.

“I’m not offended, Charles.” She says, and he’s jealous of how calm and almost bored she sounds.

“No, no of course not, that wouldn’t--” He breaks off and runs a hand over his forehead - was he _sweating_? - he couldn’t believe that he was panicking in front of Raven. “I’m sorry I didn’t remember you at all though I guess--”

“You’re very powerful, Charles.” She says softly, and he feels his heart thud hard in his chest.

Normally even this mild flirtation would barely ruffle him; normally he would just brush it off and make a comment about how she was his _sister_. But she’s not his sister, and he can still feel the hard sting of attraction that had slammed into him when he’d laid eyes on her outside of the school. He can still remember the blush crossing her cheeks as he told her how beautiful she was. He feels like a fool, suddenly. He feels like he was set up to fail and like Erik’s amusement had been the whole point of some sick joke.

He closes his eyes as she pushes the door open before turning him around and backing into the room. They were all laughing at him, that’s what this was. Hank hadn’t known they were coming, though. Hank wouldn’t do this to him. _Neither would Erik_ , his mind supplies, _neither would Raven_. But Erik had been laughing at him, and honestly, honestly he probably deserved that. He deserved it. But what he didn’t deserve was Raven’s pity, which is what this was. She pitied the stupid telepath who couldn’t even admit that he was….

He couldn’t even think it. He couldn’t admit that he’d...had feelings of a non-brotherly nature toward her for such a long time. It was mortifying to have those kinds of feelings ripped from you in a way that was both his own fault, and nobody’s.

She’d even tried to shock him, he recalls, and feels even more uncomfortable. She was so uncomfortable with the thought of him admiring her beauty that she’d tried to get him to say that her natural form wasn’t just as gorgeous…

The quiet of the room slams into him suddenly, and he realizes that he is still facing the door, but her hands aren’t on the handles anymore. It’s with this realization that he also remembers that she used to always ask him if he thought she was beautiful when she wasn’t hiding herself. He shakes his head and decides that there is no use in sitting there staring at his door. With a deep, steadying breath he turns his chair around to find Raven sitting on the end of his bed; her head cocked to the side and her arms behind her, holding her up.

“Scared of me suddenly?” She asks, and it has a definite icy edge to it.

He rolls forward slowly, his eyes locked with hers. When he’s close enough he holds out his hand for her to take. She takes it slowly, her eyes moving from his face down to his hand before she does.

“I could never be scared of you.” He says, his voice low. She lets out a slow breath and looks back up at him.

“Why did you run away, then?” She asks, and he purses his lips as he tries to piece his own feelings back together. Should he tell her that he was embarrassed that he’d let his far from brotherly admiration show without really being aware? Should he tell her that he was embarrassed that had Hank not reminded him that he needed his memories back, he would have gladly spent the rest of the day flirting with her?

“You did not…” He starts, but then frowns. “I could not…. I wanted to…” he was stumbling over his words because there was no reason for him to have left that he could say without saying out loud that he had been embarrassed because they had all seen him mooning over her and she didn’t care. No. No, what bothered him was that he loved her, had for a while, and he had to forget her in order to remember that.

“You’re a mess, Charles.” She says with a laugh. She pulls her hand out of his and sits forward. “Do you need this to be made easy for you? What do you need me to do so that you can tell me why you left?”

He’s even more embarrassed now. His cheeks flush red and he sees her eyes dart down to note the change. There’s a smile tugging at her lips, as if she were the telepath and she was just trying to tease the words she already knew out of him.

“Why did you...Did Hank tell you?” He asks, and he knows it sounds a little accusatory, but the amused look on her face vanishes and is replaced with something a little more unsettling.

“Of course he didn’t. I didn’t see him until he came in with Erik.” She says. “I was upset with you the entire walk inside. I was convinced you were trying to play a trick on me...but your reactions were too genuine.” She lets out a soft chuckle. “You’re a terrible liar anyway.” She shakes her head and Charles feels at least one of his worries float away. “Or, I should say that you’re terrible at lying to anyone but yourself.” She looks directly at him when she says this, and while there is a faint smile etched into the corner of her lips, Charles is pretty certain that it’s more sardonic than anything else.

He takes in an audible breath and rubs his hand over the back of his neck. “I have amazing brain power.” He says, and she laughs outright.

Laying a hand on his forearm she leans in conspiratorially. “And yet,” she whispers, “You’re still pretty dumb.” She winks at the end and Charles can’t help but to laugh.

The room has grown quiet again by the time he has collected himself enough to say what he wants to say.

“I have loved you forever.” he starts, and Raven snorts in derision at his choice of words. “No, I mean it.” He says, and she nods. “It felt weirdly dangerous, at first, and we were so young, I just told myself that you were my sister….”

“You told _everyone_ I was your sister.” She says flatly. He feels the pain in that statement, and nods.

“I know, because I was trying to convince myself...to remind myself that I had taken some type of responsibility for you and over you. And I should not have.” She nods, and he accepts that, though he had been hoping for a little bit more understanding; he’d been young and stupid.

_You are still fairly stupid._

“I spent so long burying it underneath everything, that I was surprised by the ferocity of it when the memories returned. I had been sitting across from this exquisite woman and having a very simple conversation...when suddenly that exquisite woman was my Raven again and the rest of my feelings tumbled from the spaces they had been hiding because I was trying to reconcile the two images I had….” He trails off and shrugs. “They were the same image, I’d just been looking at one of them for so long that I didn’t recognize it as what it really was anymore.”

“Are you trying to put me to sleep, or woo me, because I’d prefer the second.” Raven says after a couple of seconds.

Her words startle a laugh out of him and he leans forward to grab her hands. “Woo you, though I recognize I do not deserve to do so.”

She rolls her eyes and leans forward so that they are almost nose to nose. “Amazing brain power, but incredibly dumb.” She reiterates, before leaning in just a little bit more to press her lips lightly against his. “But I have to go and say hello to Hank.” She says, leaning back and standing up. “He has new suits, you know. Not yellow and blue anymore.”

He fights a smile and tries to give her a disapproving frown. “I thought you liked yellow and blue.” He says, turning his chair so that he can follow her out of the room.

“Oh my god, Charles. Nobody likes blue and yellow _superhero_ suits. That’s just dumb.”


End file.
